Articles of juvenile furniture such as strollers, carriages, baby walkers and the like are customarily provided with wheels whose rims and hubs are made of metal or rigid plastic. A solid rubber tire encircles the rim so that the wheel as a whole has some "give" or resilience as it rolls over the ground. A metal rim wheel such as this is effectively expensive to make because the rim must be connected in some fashion to the wheel hub. This is most commonly accomplished by means of spokes or radial ribs. In another equally expensive wheel construction of which we are aware, the wheel is composed of two circular shells each defining one-half of the rim and one-half of the hub. The two shells are secured together edge to edge to form the wheel. In both of these constructions, the tire must then be mounted on the rim to form the finished wheel.
Molded plastic wheels are also quite commonplace. In this type of wheel, the hub, spokes and rim are all molded as one piece and the periphery of the wheel is embossed to simulate a tire. The use of this type of wheel is generally confined to very inexpensive strollers, doll carriages and the like because the wheel is not at all resilient and therefore gives a bumpy ride. Also, being a unitary molded plastic part, the entire wheel including the simulated tire is composed of the same colored plastic material. Therefore, the prospective purchaser of the stroller or carriage perceives that wheel to be inferior to one that carries a discernible resilient tire.
In addition, from a marketing standpoint, it would be desirable to provide a wheel for strollers and carriages which can be provided with a decorative side stripe similar to the sidewall stripe on an automobile tire. Until now, the only way this could be done is by painting the circular stripe on the sides of the wheel tire just outboard of the rim. However, such an operation adds appreciably to the overall cost of the wheel. Furthermore, in normal use of the vehicle, the wheel stripes become scraped and worn so that they no longer present an attractive appearance.